OR: Tombe de Charles Messier

[Rod Brown]

It’s a peaceful setting. The fall day that we visited wassunny and quite pleasant, and the stroll in the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise in Paris was lovely. Messier rests in a nice neighborhood, just a few meters from Frédéric Chopin, though his grave is much simpler than Chopin’s. Compared to the grave of the much more famous resident across the hill (who said, appropriately, “No one here gets out alive”), Messier’s grave had many fewer visitors, too. My wife and I were there by ourselves. 

Visiting the URL on the plaque  (https://www.galactic-hunter.com/post/help-us-renovate-charles-messier-s-grave-for-the-next-100-years), it appears that the grave was quite neglected until just a few years ago, when some appreciative amateur astronomers stepped up to care for it for many years to come. I appreciate their efforts, but it seems a shame not to include on the plaque the man’s life work in finding comets. I probably would also have included the nickname King Louis XV gave him, “Ferret of Comets” (thanks Wikipedia). 

Rod

[Jamie Dillon, DDK]

Now there's a fine pilgrimage you did, Rod. There's a picture of Charles Messier on a poster in our study, with photos of the objects in his Catalogue.

Messier also gets credit for doing a lot more than hunting comets. He and Pierre Mechain and others worked for decades to map out objects in the deep sky. Messier might have started out looking for comets and non-comets, but he deliberately got way past that. And his work directly inspired William Herschel.

Here's his colophon, which is on his personal copy of the Catalogue.

[Rod Brown]

Good points, and thanks for sharing the colophon. Definitely going to need a bigger plaque for all of this. :-)

Incidentally, here are pictures of the other two graves I mentioned:

[Jamie Dillon, DDK]

Messier's colophon is cool for several reasons. It says "Messier." I have carefully traced it out in a moment of being thorough.

That logo is on the pin the Astronomical League gives out for doing the Messier list. I've had that pin on the denim jacket I take out stargazing, for a lot of years.

Hope you and your wife got from the graveyard to the cafés!

[Ted Hauter]

Very interesting.  I was blocks from his Observing site at the hotel before I knew he was there. One day. Issac Newton's home too.

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